Health

  • April 23, 2013

    Bold new plan aims to end deaths from preventable diseases

    Written by
    Camille Saade, Senior Project Director for Partnerships, FHI 360

    Last week a consortium of health organizations, led by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the U.S. Agency for International Development, launched the Global Action Plan on Pneumonia and Diarrhea. The overall goal of the plan is to end preventable deaths by working with national governments, funders, multilateral institutions, the private sector and other partners. FHI 360 has signed a statement of support for the new plan.

    Hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 5 die every year from preventable diseases. Pneumonia claims 1.3 million and diarrhea claims 700,000 children, mostly in their first two years of life. But, research that was released last week in the Lancet shows that if we aggressively scale up 15 presently available interventions, we can eliminate 95 percent of diarrheal and 67 percent of pneumonia deaths in children under 5 by the year 2025. These interventions include improved water, sanitation and hygiene; exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of a child’s life; community case management; and the use of oral rehydration salts (ORS) to treat diarrhea.

    FHI 360’s Diarrhea Alleviation through Zinc and ORS Therapy (DAZT) project has been working in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in India to dramatically increase the use of ORS and zinc to treat diarrhea. FHI 360 pioneered a new partnership model involving pharmaceutical companies and nongovernmental organizations to reach health providers in the rural areas where diarrhea causes the most deaths. Our focus is on ensuring demand and a continuous supply of these treatments where they are most needed.

    To learn more about the Global Action Plan on Pneumonia and Diarrhea consortium’s statement of support, visit: defeatdd.org/take-action/global-action-plan/ngo-statement-support.

  • April 16, 2013

    Award-winning publication helps students with asthma keep active

    Written by
    Carole Craft, Science Writer, FHI 360

    Regular physical activity is important for health and well-being. But for the estimated one in 10 students in the United States who have asthma, their condition may be viewed as a barrier to physical activity, particularly if their asthma is not well controlled.

    Thankfully, teachers, coaches, and school administrators now have an award-winning tool to guide them in supporting students who have asthma, so those students can participate fully and safely in physical activity — whether in the gym, on the playground or during a class field trip.

    The tool, Asthma & Physical Activity in the School: Making a Difference, was developed by FHI 360 and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The publication received a 2013 ClearMark Award from the Center for Plain Language, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that advocates for and supports the use of plain language in government, business and academic institutions. Its annual ClearMark Awards celebrate the best in plain language among public- and private-sector print and online communications.

    An update of the 1995 publication of the same name, this 32-page booklet provides school personnel with essential information in an easy-to-digest format that they can use to help students with asthma remain healthy and active. It explains technical asthma terms in simple language, calls out actions for school staff and includes helpful reproducible tools, such as asthma action plans and instructions on using asthma inhalers and other devices. The update reflects changes in asthma care guidelines, issued in 2007 by the NHLBI, and clarifies key points about asthma control.

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  • April 10, 2013

    Getting to zero: National Youth HIV and AIDS Awareness Day

    Written by
    A. Cornelius Baker, Technical Advisor, AIDS and Community Health, FHI 360

    More than half of the world’s population is under the age of 30 and has never lived in a time without AIDS. Despite the steady progress of our collective scientific and community efforts to end the HIV epidemic, the lives of young people continue to be especially vulnerable. To bring attention to this ongoing crisis and to commit ourselves to achieving an AIDS-free generation, today marks the first National Youth HIV and AIDS Awareness Day.

    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 50,000 people in the United States are infected with HIV each year. Of those, one in four is between 13 and 24 years old. Further, CDC reports that nearly 60 percent of new infections in youth occur in African Americans, 20 percent in Latinos and about 20 percent in whites. In 2010, CDC estimates that 87 percent of the 12,000 annual infections in youth occurred among gay and bisexual young men. Nearly half of all new infections among American youth occur in African American males.

    In a CDC Vital Signs report released for World AIDS Day 2012, the agency noted that “about 60 percent of youth do not know they are infected and so don’t receive treatment, putting them at risk for sickness and early death. These youth can also unknowingly pass HIV to others.”

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  • April 8, 2013

    Celebrating World Health Day

    Written by
    Peter Lamptey, Distinguished Scientist and President Emeritus, FHI 360

    Each year on April 7th, the World Health Organization celebrates the anniversary of its founding with World Health Day. The theme for this year’s celebration is high blood pressure — an unappreciated, yet significant global public health epidemic. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension, contributes to nine million deaths every year. It is a key risk factor for cardiovascular disease such as heart disease and stroke, which is the number one cause of death globally: more people die annually from cardiovascular disease than from any other cause. (data: World Health Organization)

    Most people would be surprised to learn that one in three adults worldwide has high blood pressure. Moreover, it is not a condition relegated to the wealthy. Prevalence of high blood pressure is highest in some low-income countries in Africa, with over 40 percent of adults estimated to be hypertensive in many African countries.

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  • April 4, 2013

    New toolkit helps programs protect children from harm

    Every child has the right to be safe from harm. Still, millions of children around the world are abused, neglected and exploited every year. Because children who experience violence and abuse can become adults who are less able to contribute to their societies, protecting children from harm is a vital aspect of development programs. To that end, FHI 360 developed a three-part child protection toolkit to help our programs and local implementing partners protect the children they serve.

    The first manual, Child Protection Basics, presents the fundamental aspects of child protection. It describes different types of maltreatment and factors that contribute to child maltreatment. It also describes how to create a protective environment using a systems approach. The systems approach examines and addresses all the circumstances that challenge children’s well-being as a whole, rather than addressing each of them individually or in a fragmented way.

    The second manual, Guidelines and Programming Options for Protecting Vulnerable Children in Community-Based Care and Support Programs, can be used as a reference document for integrating child protection into the design of programs, strengthening existing programs and tailoring training. The manual shows the importance of conducting a child-protection analysis, which looks at risk factors, and outlines strategies and interventions that can be implemented at the child, family, community and government levels to protect children in accordance with global principles and best practices. The authors also discuss the importance of protecting children in emergencies and the need and challenges of ongoing monitoring and evaluation activities.

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  • March 28, 2013

    Tackling TB around the world

    The global resurgence of tuberculosis (TB) over the past decades has been fueled by emerging drug resistance, co-infection with increasingly prevalent HIV and decreasing investments in public health systems. These challenges call for innovative, strategic approaches and more efficient, cost-effective programs. TB CARE I is a coalition of seven international TB control organizations, each with offices in most of the TB-priority countries for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

    FHI 360 is the lead coordinating partner in Cambodia, Mozambique and Zambia and a collaborating partner in Indonesia and Nigeria. The program focuses on specific technical areas, including early case detection, improved laboratory capacity, management of drug-resistant TB, HIV/TB co-infection and health systems strengthening. FHI 360 and TB CARE I assist countries to move toward universal access to TB treatment by working with communities most at risk to reduce morbidity and mortality through increased case detection and treatment.

    The three videos below produced by TB CARE I are great visual portrayals of how TB has affected lives in Cambodia and the Dominican Republic. Visit TB CARE I’s website to see other videos like these, and to learn more about the project.

    Triumph Over MDR-TB

    Multidrug-Resistant TB or MDR-TB is a serious form of TB which is resistant to at least the two most powerful TB drugs. As MDR-TB is difficult to cure, it requires treatment for a minimum of 20 months with drugs which often have severe side-effects. In this video Yim Chann (Cambodia) will tell you about his triumph over MDR-TB

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  • March 25, 2013

    In hot pursuit: Don’t stop now!

    Written by
    Carol Hamilton, Director of Scientific Affairs, FHI 360

    This year began on an optimistic note for scientists, policy makers and those most affected by tuberculosis, with the licensing of a drug that represents the first new approach to treating the disease in more than 40 years. This year’s World TB Day gives us an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made in confronting this ancient but persistent disease, as well as the challenges that remain. This year, with budget issues threatening the immediate future of medical research, the approval of a new tuberculosis treatment sheds light on the path ahead.

    The newly licensed drug, known as bedaquiline or Sirturo, is important because it has shown promising results against tuberculosis that has become resistant to other treatment – often called multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis. I served on the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] FDA advisory panel that recommended approval of the drug and I was happy that the agency concurred. However, we need not just one, but several new drugs to put together in successful combination if we are to avoid the mistakes of the past and avoid a future where tuberculosis is again a highly fatal, untreatable disease. Now is the time to put our foot on the accelerator, not the brakes.

    In the middle of the last century, tuberculosis was considered conquered. Today, it is the world’s second leading infectious disease killer, taking nearly 2 million lives each year. Furthermore, a frightening proportion of new cases of tuberculosis in China, Eastern Europe, India, Russia and South Africa are resistant to current first-line drugs. With air travel, cross-cultural exchanges and immigration, patterns of resistance are steadily making inroads in the United States as well. HIV has fueled tuberculosis across Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, while the drugs and diagnostics have become increasingly outdated. The disease, in short, has evolved faster than the tools developed in the last century to fight it. Now, it is estimated that more than 1,000 people infected with HIV die every day from tuberculosis, a curable disease.

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  • March 22, 2013

    Breaking the cycle: Small doable actions in WASH to improve child health

    FHI 360’s Julia Rosenbaum discusses the power of small doable actions in water supply, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs. FHI 360’s WASHplus program, funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supports healthy households and communities by delivering interventions that lead to improvements in access, practices and health outcomes related to WASH and indoor air pollution. For more information on WASHplus, please visit www.washplus.org.

  • March 13, 2013

    Partner reduction to avoid HIV risk is the focus for a new publication

    Written by
    Suzanne Fischer, Technical Writer, FHI 360
    Promoting Partner Reduction title page

    Having multiple sexual partners, particularly when relationships overlap in time, is a major driver of the HIV epidemic. Overlapping, or concurrent, relationships increase the number of people who are connected in a “sexual network,” and HIV spreads more quickly the larger the sexual network. Although young people report having multiple sexual partners, few HIV prevention programs for youth tackle this topic.

    FHI 360, on behalf of USAID’s Interagency Youth Working Group, recently helped address this gap with a new publication, Promoting Partner Reduction: Helping Young People Understand and Avoid HIV Risks from Multiple Partnerships. The late Dr. Doug Kirby of ETR Associates was a major contributor.

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  • February 22, 2013

    What is the impact of poverty on health? TEDMED challenges us to think about it.

    Written by
    Manny Rodriguez, Communication and Social Marketing, FHI 360

    It is no secret that those who face poverty are the most vulnerable to disease. Disparities are widespread, especially in health, here in the United States and around the world. We know that the reasons for this are multifaceted and that to tackle the topic of poverty and health requires a multilevel, multidisciplinary conversation, where ideas are shared with the goal of sparking innovation and generating new ways to improve global health.

    The Impact of Poverty on Health is one of twenty challenges our friends at TEDMED are tackling through their Great Challenges program. So many health challenges are complex. They have medical and non-medical causes and affect the well-being of millions of people around the world. These knotty problems are not susceptible to simple cures, magic bullets or one-size-fits-all solutions.

    I had the opportunity to moderate the first TEDMED Google hangout on poverty and health, where leaders from around the world came together online to initiate an open dialog. Questions such as how to integrate the social determinants of health as a “must have” discussion among medical students, and the ways access to education plays a vital role in people’s understanding of health, were discussed. The Google hangout format allowed hundreds to listen via live video and participate by sending their questions and ideas through Twitter and Facebook. It brought people from different backgrounds and perspectives together to discuss health equity, which affects us all in one way or another. Although solving the issue was not the main goal, I think that solutions may already be brewing in the hearts and minds of those who participated.

    You can also participate in this dialog by watching the session below. Add your thoughts on Twitter by using the hashtag #greatchallenges.

    TEDMED Great Challenges is a program sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.